12. Caution and Complaint

Rosalie made a face at me as soon as the elevator doors closed behind us. “I’m sorry that Bella had to leave.”

“You don’t have to be so nasty, Rose.” I felt cold inside, empty. My head was like a hollow drum. And generated idiotic similes.

I hadn’t slept well the night before. I knew I had nightmares. As much as I assured Bella that we were cool, and that I had no hard feelings, I felt uncomfortable now. Awkward. But what are you supposed to say to someone who just ripped off your attacker’s head?

I didn’t expect, though, that Bella would leave so soon. I suspected that she might not stay for long – she seemed awkward here, not quite comfortable with staying in someone else’s hotel, with people she didn’t know – but I didn’t expect her to take off in the middle of the night. It didn’t seem like her. It was inexplicable.

Then again, a lot of things about Bella were inexplicable.

“Edward, give it a rest. Rose, you too.” Emmett leaned back wearily on the wall of the elevator. “I can’t believe you woke me up for this. I’m tired.”

“What about your beauty sleep?” Emmett teased. “God forbid you should look any less beautiful than you do now.” He tried to wrap his arms around her.

“You pig.” She squirmed out of his grasp just as the doors dinged open. I hurried out into the lobby, not wanting to put up with their childish behavior. Not childish. Nausea-enducingly adorable. I couldn’t take it.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I snapped it open to hear Alice’s voice. “Edward. Where are you?”

“Um, the hotel? In Port Angeles?” I sat at one of the grey-topped, faux-elegant tables in the “Café.” More like a cafeteria. “Why?”

She sighed, almost sounding relieved. “Oh, okay. That’s all right then. Wait. Are Carlisle and Esme with you?”

“Yes, of course. Alice, what’s going on?”

She inhaled deeply. “Nothing, Edward. I’m just taking a bad dream too seriously. Anyways, Jasper and I are getting ready to come home. We had the most amazing shopping trip. This is the cutest little town. Oh, Edward, you would love it so much. I have to bring you next time. You could find some little bookstore, or something. But it’s so gorgeous and everything. And everything is super cheep. Carlisle won’t have to cancel my credit card this time…”

“Wait, Alice.” Bad dreams? Unease gnawed at the pit of my stomach. “You had a dream? What was it about?”

“Okay, okay.” She sighed. “I don’t really know what all was happening. It was dark and confusing. Dark alley, and all that stuff? Maybe like a horror movie. I know you were there, and so were these people I didn’t know. And then there was screaming.” Her voice grew as serious as mine, and I shivered. “But then the dream changed, right? It was you, outside the hotel. Alone. And, Edward, there was something in the shadows.”

“Do you believe in the dream, Alice? Is this like the other times?”

She snapped back to reality. “I don’t know. It’s irrelevant.”

“it is not irrelevant.” I bit my tongue against telling her I’d had almost the same dream – to a certain extent, at least. I’d sound crazy. “I want to know if it’s like last time. You’re usually right.”

“I don’t know. Look, why don’t you talk to Jasper for a minute? I’m in the middle of trying on my new stuff. I have to get rid of some of it so that Esme won’t flip out. Here.”

I heard the scratchy sounds of the phone shuffling to a different person. Emmett and Rose filtered into the café, arm-in-arm. Apparently, they’d had no trouble kissing and making up.

“Edward?”

“Hey, Jasper. You holding up okay there?”

He laughed throatily. “Yeah, I guess so. I would have gone crazy if Alice hadn’t had this stupid dream.”

“Was she that bad?” I started chuckling, and then realized the implications of his words. “Was the dream really that bad? She’s trying to blow it off as something not important.”

“I couldn’t say. She seemed really freaked out this morning. But I don’t know. That’s just a guess. She took a while to calm down.”

Scarily accurate dreams on Alice’s part. A perception of anxiety on Jasper’s part. All these things I’d actually lived. It made me nervous. “Should I be worried, Jazz?”

“No problem. We’ll see you tonight.” The phone went dead, and I felt that distinctly creepy feeling of someone being right behind me… I turned, imagining darkness, shadows. My spine tingled.

“Boo.” Emmett slipped into the chair beside me, and I jumped half a foot. “Daydreaming, Eddie? Thinking about Bella again?”

“Please God, spare me.” Rosalie took one of Emmett’s two trays and started stirring her cereal. “Not again. Edward, I thought you knew better than to be so shallow.”

“Why does everything have to be about Bella?” My fingers drummed too quickly on the table. “There’s other stuff going on, too, you know?”

“Like what?” She looked at me condescendingly, her mouth full of cereal. “Honestly, look at it. Even Carlisle and Esme are making a big deal out of her. I’d like to meet one person who’s not in love with her.”

“Ben isn’t,” Emmett quickly. “He’s too in love with Angela.”

I rolled my eyes, my foot tapping in time with the staccato of my fingers, unable to pay attention to their useless banter. “Gossip. It’s even shallower than you, Rose.”

“Thanks Edward. Although you’re not really in a position to speak. You’re too absorbed in Bella to notice anything else around you. So I would hardly start calling me names.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but Emmett pointed subtly toward the door. We all turned to see Carlisle scanning the room. His gaze landed on our table, and he strode over to take the seat beside me.

“Esme is on the phone with Chief Swan,” he said, looking weary.

My siblings nodded passively. I spun my phone around on the table, not wanting to look at Carlisle, afraid that my eyes would be too inquisitive.

“Why don’t you and Rose run along, Emmett. We’ll only be a minute.” Carlisle smiled tightly at them and then turned his chair so that he was facing me.

“What is it?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Bella.”

My heart dropped, and my stomach tightened nervously. It would be about Bella. Rose and Emmett were right. Everything was about Bella now. “Okay.”

His eyes tightened. “Edward, it’s obvious that you feel very strongly about her.”

I licked my lips, but couldn’t find the words to deny that.

He nodded gravely. “Ordinarily, I would be glad that you’ve found someone like her. You need someone special in your life. Esme agrees with me. It’s not so normal for you to be alone.” I tried to protest again, but he beat me to it. “No, you are alone. Rosalie and Emmett have each other. Alice and Jasper have each other. All we want is for you to be loved. But I’d rather it not be Bella.”

“Why?” I rasped. I didn’t think to deny that I felt that way about Bella.

Carlisle looked uncomfortable. “She’s not… There’s something about her that makes me anxious, Edward. It was very gallant of you to help her last night. But I feel like I didn’t get the whole story. I’m not asking that you give me every detail. I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I’m not getting myself into anything. Bella and I are barely friends.” I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I didn’t even know how Bella could possibly be human. She was much too intriguing for that.

But he knew me too well. He didn’t look at all like he bought that. “Okay. I’ll trust you for now. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

My mouth was dry again. “Carlisle, I’m not going to get hurt. I have no intention of chasing after Bella. We have no relationship whatsoever. What happened last night was a mistake.”

He sighed, still not looking convinced. “You don’t have any idea of where she went? Any idea at all?”

“Home?” I said shakily. “Isn’t that what her letter said? That she found a ride home?”

“I give up.” He stood, and walked over to the breakfast bar. What had he expected me to say?

We did very little for the rest of the day. Carlisle’s conference over, Esme invited whoever wanted to come to come shop around with her downtown. She and Carlisle ended up wandering the boardwalk together. I refused point-blank to come. I couldn’t imagine getting stuck down another deserted alleyway, alone. Bella was gone by now, I was almost sure. There was no one who would come save me. Emmett coaxed Rosalie down into the arcade room, so I sat and moped.

Just like everyone always accused me of doing. Edward, you’re too serious. You need to get out and have fun. And I always denied it.

We went home sometime mid-afternoon. Rose and Emmett sat quietly in the back of the Volvo, which was nice. The silent drive was what I needed. It prepared me for coming home to Alice and her shopping bags.

“Edward!” She flung herself at me as soon as I walked in the door.

“Alice. Calm down.” I looked over her shoulder at Jasper for help. He shrugged apologetically.

She let me go and took my bag from me. “We need to talk. Up in your room. Now.” I looked at her questioningly, but her face was uncompromising.

“Please, Edward?” Jasper asked. “She won’t shut up about needing to talk to you. Just go.”

So I followed Alice upstairs. She dropped my bag unceremoniously on the floor and bounced onto my bed. I sat beside her. “Edward.”

“Yes?”

“What happened this weekend?”

“I probably made it sound worse than it actually was, Alice. It’s not a big deal. Why? Did someone say something to you?”

“Edward.” She grabbed my arm and shook me. “I need to know. All I know is that Bella wound up spending the night with you last night. I had a feeling something would happen in Port Angeles. Now tell me what it was.”

“Okay, okay. I just don’t know where to start.”

“From the very beginning,” she said through her teeth.

“Okay. So we got to Port Angeles, and I went for a drive. I felt… like I needed to be alone.” Alice would understand that. “I got out and started walking. I guess I wasn’t really thinking about where I was going. I ended up some place very unfamiliar.” The back lot of a gay bar. But she didn’t need to know that.

“The alleyway.” She nodded, looking troubled.

“And there were these guys there… They looked like they were going to do something to me. Something bad. But then Bella showed up.”

Alice frowned again. I wondered if my eyes had glazed over or something. “Why was she covered in blood?”

“There was a… fight.’

She sighed. “Okay. Edward, just be careful from now on, okay?”

“What would make you think I’m not? Alice, Carlisle gave me just about the same talk earlier. He’s worried that Bella is a bad influence on me. Whatever.”